Frugal Friday 505

 Happy Frugal Friday!

Here's how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:

- Friday we kept my nephew for the day. His family moved over the summer so we loved seeing their new house and exploring their new neighborhood. It has a park just down the street so we spent several hours there playing, meeting friends, and exploring. The kids were all thrilled to find a praying mantis and spent over an hour observing it! I love the gift of time with my nieces and nephews.

- Friday night was opening night for Fall Ball. O played a great game, made several great plays from the outfield, and got a base hit. We are LOVING this league. I did treat the kids to dinner out since we were running from McCordsville to Shelbyville between babysitting and the game. They loved that treat.

- We were away from the house about 14 hours on Friday so we had some neighbor friends come let Oscar out twice for us. The girls did a great job and he loved all of the extra attention. We paid them in puppy chow as a thank you for watching our pup.

- Saturday we mowed the lawn, ran some errands, and got our chores all done by 3. I traded kids with our neighbors and she took the boys, I took the girls. The kids had a great time playing with friends, away from their siblings, and it made for a great Saturday. 

- Mark is FINALLY home from Alabama. After a summer of one of us away nearly every week we were extremely thankful to all be back together this week.

- Sunday after church Mama and Dad came up for lunch and baseball. We made pork tacos/nachos with rice and corn. They kindly brought up the rest of the furniture pieces from my uncle's house. My uncle is moving into RV life and gifted us a record console (we are using it for our new TV stand) and two dressers. Now, for the first time since we've been married, Mark really has enough space for all of his clothes

- In the past week, we've donated two trunkfuls of items. It feels INCREDIBLE to have SO much out of the house. It's SO freeing to have less stuff. Mark and the kids each have new-to-them dressers and so their clothes are really cleaned out and organized. It gives me so much peace to know everything has a place. It's made our daily tidying session so much easier and faster.  

- I wrapped up a fundraiser with a local organization, we raised several hundred dollars for them, and kicked off fundraisers for two dance studios in Indiana and Kentucky. Want to hear more about our Cards for a Cause Fundraiser? Just ask!

- I got my quarterly Rakuten check this week. It was for $20. I love getting cashback on things I was already buying! You can click my link above to start getting cashback too. 

- This was a very rare week where we had just two evening events. Annabeth and her duet partner learned their new piece on Monday night and last night we had our Back to School Night with our co-op. Due to the extreme heat we moved it from a shelterhouse/field place to a park with a splash pad. I know it was a lot of work for our committee to shift plans and move but it was SO worth it. The kids all had a blast and it was much cooler!

Back to co-op 2023

We are looking forward to a busy weekend with family and friends. After a slowish week at home with lots of projects completed, I am looking forward to the busy. 

Happy Savings to All! 

Frugal Friday 504

 Happy Frugal Friday!

Here is how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:

- Last Friday Mark picked up our pig for the year. We spent right at $500 for the meat and processing. We did the same thing last year and were down to just one pork shoulder. I am very diligent about using what we have in our freezer. Last year's pig fed us for the year and we were able to give away five hams to family and friends. We are proud to buy our pig each year from a local farmer we know and to have it processed by friends in Shelby County. 

- The kids and I spent last Friday-Wednesday in Evansville. We had a great time with my parents, sister, and the family in Kentucky. We ate lots of great meals, visited the Farmer's Market, visited Dwell several times, shopped the little Darmstadt shops to kick off our Christmas shopping, and made the best summer memories. I am so thankful for this week at home each August.

Dwell Stop #2 for us

Mama, Dad, and Owen went another time as well!

- Mark has been training down in Alabama. He has enjoyed his classes and has learned a lot it sounds like. We look forward to having him home this weekend.

- Monday I had the most special day. Mama and Dad kept the kids and worked through their Evansville Bucket List. I went down to Owensboro and spent the day with my Momaw. She was 93 in May and it was such a precious day to be able to go out to lunch with her and to run errands. Some of my earliest memories are summer days spent with her and I never take for granted that I still get to make news ones at 36 years old. To have her all to myself for the day was so special. 

- I took a bag of clothes to trade with my sister. She brought some for me as well. Ones that didn't fit either of us were divided between a bag for my nieces and a bag for a friend. I stopped by her house to drop them off around 7 on Tuesday. We chatted for a while and I realized it was really dark out. I said, "Oh gosh! It's probably 10. I should head home." It was 12:45 AM!!! I couldn't believe it - I had left my phone in my car and didn't realize at all how much time had passed! 

- Wednesday we made the trek home. We got in around 2 and O had baseball at 5:30 so I splurged on ordering pizza to come while we unpacked. I used a 20% off lunch and $10 off coupon which made it a great deal. We had it for leftovers lunch on Thursday too.

- Yesterday we spent over 9 hours cleaning and moving furniture around the house. One of my uncles is moving from a large home to RV life and we are fortunate enough to be receiving three very nice pieces of family furniture from him. Before it comes, we needed to do some moving. We moved a dresser of Mark's into Owen's room, Owen's dresser to Annabeth's room, and her small dresser into her closet. She is thrilled to have an accessories drawer "Just like on Princess diaries!" We traded out her nightstand for my desk from my office. I never sit at it to work so her drawers will work just fine as the storage I need it for. We were motivated to get it all done before the furniture comes this weekend and before we do a big paint/make-over for Annabeth's 12th birthday later this fall.

- We bagged up a garbage bag of clothes and are also taking three blankets to donate. We ran out of time to drop off to donate last night but it will get done tomorrow. I work very hard to quickly get items out of the house when we are done with them.

We are looking forward to all being home this weekend - the first time in over two weeks! Hooray!

Happy Savings to All! 

Frugal Friday 503

 Happy Frugal Friday!

Here's how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:

- While cleaning out at my parents' house, I found an old tuxedo shirt I used when I waited tables. I donated it to our library's Project Prom. I also took a fancy black dress that we had been gifted but wasn't a style Annabeth loved. It was a Juniors size so we donated that too.I love that they give local teens FREE formal wear and accessories making homecoming and prom possible for everyone to enjoy. 

- Mark spent Saturday and Sunday volunteering at a Scout Training. Mark spends literally hundreds of hours a year investing in youth scouts and adult educational trainings. I used to really mind when he was gone. I was jealous of his time away doing something fun, I was envious of the friends he seemed to want to spend time with more than me, but in the past few years I've prayed very hard that God would soften my heart to this service of Mark's. It does pull time, energy, and resources from our family but I also know that Mark has been used to impact the lives of hundreds through Scouting and knowing he's doing it with the Lord in mind is such a beautiful thing. 

- Annabeth was able to spend Saturday-yesterday in Illinois with her cousins. Mark's mom said last month that she was driving over to keep the cousins while M+J took a 15th Anniversary trip. Annabeth asked if she could go along and they had the BEST time. The Fab Four as we call them are all ages 11-13 and love being together. Nana spoiled everyone with trips bowling, pool days, and back to school shopping. Thank you Kristi!

- I sent a big bag of clothes along with Annabeth for my nieces to go through. Now that they are teenagers we can share some of the same sizes! They generously sent home a tote of clothes for Annabeth as well. 

- Owen and I enjoyed the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. He took along his own money and spent $7. He tipped the guitar player and purchased cookies and Dr. Pepper for himeself. We scoured the booths to find the cheapest price on sweet corn and ended up buying out some brothers at $5/dozen. We also stopped by the FFA stand on the way home where corn was 13/$5. 

- We processed all of the sweet corn for the freezer on Saturday afternoon. We put up over 8 lbs of corn for the year, more than double what we did last year. 

- For the rest of our special "Date Day" Owen chose building with Legos, making No-Bake cookies, bike riding, and movie night. All free fun!

- Sunday after church, Owen and I attended a FREE beekeeping class at Garfield Park. They handed out little jars of honey and honey lip balm. We also enjoyed the Children's Garden and Sunken Gardens. 

My favorite little guy to explore with

He LOVED the chickens

- Monday morning, I dropped Owen off with my parents. When the kids turn 8, they get to go stay for the week. He's had a great week in Evansville with putt-putt, lake fun, museums, shopping, and soooo much more. We were all nervous that he might get homesick but he seems to be really settled into life with the grandparents. I am SO thankful that each of the kids had precious time with grandparents this week. 

- I spent my kid-free days working on the HWGA Fall Sale. I tagged hundreds of items over 7 hours of work. I have everything prepped and ready to drop off in September. 

- Wednesday I took the day off work and went to Charlestown for the day. I took coffee to my best friend and we spent all day talking. She treated me to lunch. It was amazing to have a kid-free day together. 

- I listed many homeschool books at the end of the school year. This week I finally sold two of them. Made: $40

- I sold another item of the kids clothing from my Facebook sale. Made: $15

- Mark ended up working every evening/night this week in addition to his office hours. We did have some quick dinners together but definitely not the date nights we had hoped for with the kids gone. Regardless, I am thankful for the service he provides our community. People sometimes ask how they can specifically pray for law enforcement. Please pray for their safety and for the war on drugs. Pray that people will be freed from the bonds of addiction which in turn will keep all of our communities safer. 

- Annabeth got home last night. She talked non-stop about all of the adventures with the cousins. We had dinner together, a funky one since we haven't grocery shopped for two weeks, and then played Harry Potter UNO. 

I am looking forward to picking up Owen later today. I can't wait to hear about his adventures!

Happy Savings to All!

Frugal Friday 502

 Happy Frugal Friday!

Here's how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:

- Last week the kids did VBS at a Faith MBC here in town. Many of our homeschool friends attend there and/or went to VBS as well and the kids had a great week. Friday night they hosted a night of singing and sharing followed by a cook-out and waterslide kickball. We had such a wonderful time fellowshipping with everyone.

- We did big clean-outs of the kids closets and dressers ahead of the kids' sale. I listed many of the items for sale on Facebook. I was able to sell enough to cover the cost of the kids' dance auditions last weekend. It was a win, win - many items left and I made money for something the kids wanted to do.

- Sunday morning at church Owen received his 3rd grade Bible. He was very excited and has already read through several of his favorite stories this week. He was very excited to have a "big kid" Bible vs his storybook Bible. Later in the week, we got word that our old church had also had a Bible stamped with his name for 3rd grade promotion. We were able to stop by there on Wednesday to pick it up from our dear friend Miss Terri. It was great to see her and to catch up.

- Sunday evening we had Mark's mom over for dinner. She usually hosts and cooks so it was nice for us to gift her dinner for once. We made steak salads and played Countdown after dinner. 

- Owen started fall ball this week. He had two practices and was able to get to know his new coaches and teammates a bit. We're excited to try a new league for the fall.

- Annabeth took her last dance class of summer. I try to leave the last few weeks of August as her break for the year. I think it's good for her to miss it a bit and definitely good for her body to have a rest.

- We've been growing a bucket garden this year. It's our first attempt and so far we've only had three peppers. But last weekend, our first Sunflower opened and it looks like more of our veggies are coming soon. We thank God for the fun of growing things together as a family.

We picked sunflowers last fall,

dried out the seeds and saved them all winter.

This year we attempted to grow our own from those.

The kids have LOVED this process.

- As we get closer to Fall Break, I have many clients beginning to be able to book their Disney Dining. I have a great time talking with each family and getting a feel for what experiences and meals they want to book. I also love helping families find ways to save money and to spend money wisely while at the parks. There is still plenty of vacation availability for Fall Break and Holiday Break - please reach out if you'd like to chat about a trip.

- Wednesday we enjoyed a mid-day pool party -- homeschool perks -- as we celebrated Owen's friend C. Owen chose a dinosaur joke book for his dino loving friend and we gifted him $7 as he is turning 7. The kids loved swimming with friends and I loved chatting with some fellow homeschool mamas.

- Yesterday, I teamed up with my fellow co-op leader for the year to make classroom totes with school supplies. This was her project but I was happy to help. Our kids played really nicely for a couple of hours which meant we got to have some adult conversation. Their family's garden is doing much better than ours and they gifted us two zucchinis to take home. Thank you all.

We had a great, full week of friends and school. We have fun plans for the rest of August so I wanted one basic school week while we could get it in.

Happy Savings to All